Swiss National Bank Decreases Stock Holdings in Accenture plc (NYSE:ACN)

Swiss National Bank lessened its stake in shares of Accenture plc (NYSE:ACN - Free Report) by 0.1% in the 3rd quarter, according to its most recent disclosure with the SEC. The institutional investor owned 1,859,200 shares of the information technology services provider's stock after selling 2,200 shares during the period. Swiss National Bank owned about 0.30% of Accenture worth $657,190,000 at the end of the most recent quarter.

Several other hedge funds and other institutional investors also recently bought and sold shares of the company. Claro Advisors LLC increased its position in Accenture by 6.7% during the 3rd quarter. Claro Advisors LLC now owns 11,508 shares of the information technology services provider's stock valued at $4,068,000 after purchasing an additional 727 shares during the period. Adero Partners LLC boosted its stake in shares of Accenture by 24.8% during the third quarter. Adero Partners LLC now owns 1,216 shares of the information technology services provider's stock valued at $430,000 after purchasing an additional 242 shares in the last quarter. Sather Financial Group Inc increased its holdings in Accenture by 3.1% during the third quarter. Sather Financial Group Inc now owns 133,818 shares of the information technology services provider's stock valued at $47,302,000 after buying an additional 3,988 shares during the period. Schear Investment Advisers LLC lifted its holdings in Accenture by 1.3% during the third quarter. Schear Investment Advisers LLC now owns 3,796 shares of the information technology services provider's stock worth $1,342,000 after buying an additional 50 shares during the period. Finally, Accredited Investors Inc. increased its holdings in shares of Accenture by 0.9% in the 3rd quarter. Accredited Investors Inc. now owns 5,569 shares of the information technology services provider's stock valued at $1,969,000 after acquiring an additional 52 shares during the period. Institutional investors own 75.14% of the company's stock.

Accenture Stock Down 2.3 %

Shares of ACN stock traded down $8.50 on Friday, hitting $353.57. The company had a trading volume of 3,624,539 shares, compared to its average volume of 2,555,959. Accenture plc has a twelve month low of $278.69 and a twelve month high of $387.51. The firm has a market cap of $221.04 billion, a P/E ratio of 30.93, a price-to-earnings-growth ratio of 3.09 and a beta of 1.25. The company has a 50-day moving average price of $355.55 and a 200-day moving average price of $327.46.

Accenture (NYSE:ACN - Get Free Report) last announced its quarterly earnings results on Thursday, September 26th. The information technology services provider reported $2.79 earnings per share (EPS) for the quarter, beating analysts' consensus estimates of $2.78 by $0.01. The company had revenue of $16.41 billion during the quarter, compared to the consensus estimate of $16.37 billion. Accenture had a return on equity of 26.83% and a net margin of 11.20%. Accenture's revenue for the quarter was up 2.6% on a year-over-year basis. During the same period in the previous year, the company posted $2.71 earnings per share. Equities research analysts expect that Accenture plc will post 12.77 EPS for the current year.

Accenture Increases Dividend

The company also recently disclosed a quarterly dividend, which was paid on Friday, November 15th. Shareholders of record on Thursday, October 10th were given a $1.48 dividend. The ex-dividend date was Thursday, October 10th. This represents a $5.92 dividend on an annualized basis and a dividend yield of 1.67%. This is an increase from Accenture's previous quarterly dividend of $1.29. Accenture's dividend payout ratio is 51.79%.

Accenture declared that its board has approved a stock buyback plan on Thursday, September 26th that permits the company to repurchase $4.00 billion in shares. This repurchase authorization permits the information technology services provider to purchase up to 1.8% of its shares through open market purchases. Shares repurchase plans are generally an indication that the company's board believes its shares are undervalued.

Analyst Upgrades and Downgrades

A number of equities research analysts recently weighed in on the company. BNP Paribas cut Accenture from an "outperform" rating to a "neutral" rating and set a $375.00 price objective for the company. in a research note on Wednesday, October 30th. StockNews.com lowered shares of Accenture from a "buy" rating to a "hold" rating in a research report on Thursday, October 24th. Piper Sandler Companies reiterated a "neutral" rating and set a $329.00 price objective on shares of Accenture in a research note on Friday, September 20th. Guggenheim raised their target price on shares of Accenture from $380.00 to $395.00 and gave the company a "buy" rating in a research note on Friday, September 27th. Finally, Royal Bank of Canada upped their price target on Accenture from $377.00 to $389.00 and gave the stock an "outperform" rating in a research report on Friday, September 27th. Ten research analysts have rated the stock with a hold rating and thirteen have given a buy rating to the company. Based on data from MarketBeat.com, the company presently has a consensus rating of "Moderate Buy" and a consensus target price of $368.23.

Insider Transactions at Accenture

In other Accenture news, insider Angela Beatty sold 673 shares of the business's stock in a transaction that occurred on Tuesday, October 22nd. The stock was sold at an average price of $372.18, for a total transaction of $250,477.14. Following the completion of the sale, the insider now directly owns 5,650 shares in the company, valued at approximately $2,102,817. The trade was a 10.64 % decrease in their position. The transaction was disclosed in a filing with the Securities & Exchange Commission, which is accessible through this hyperlink. Also, CEO Ryoji Sekido sold 3,191 shares of the stock in a transaction that occurred on Monday, November 4th. The shares were sold at an average price of $343.70, for a total value of $1,096,746.70. Following the transaction, the chief executive officer now directly owns 6 shares of the company's stock, valued at $2,062.20. The trade was a 99.81 % decrease in their position. The disclosure for this sale can be found here. Insiders have sold a total of 36,298 shares of company stock valued at $13,372,661 in the last ninety days. 0.07% of the stock is currently owned by corporate insiders.

Accenture Profile

Accenture plc, a professional services company, provides strategy and consulting, industry X, song, and technology and operation services worldwide. The company offers application services, including agile transformation, DevOps, application modernization, enterprise architecture, software and quality engineering, data management; intelligent automation comprising robotic process automation, natural language processing, and virtual agents; and application management services, as well as software engineering services; strategy and consulting services; data and analytics strategy, data discovery and augmentation, data management and beyond, data democratization, and industrialized solutions comprising turnkey analytics and artificial intelligence (AI) solutions; metaverse; and sustainability services.